In 1991, Katha Pollitt wrote about "the Smurfette principle: a group of male buddies will be accented by a lone female, stereotypically defined." I'm a woman working in a male-dominated job, so for a long time, that was me. Even though I haven't made it into a better job yet, I've come a long way personally, and I still have a lot of work to do. This is where I blog about my journey, emotionally, spiritually, and professionally.

One Card Weekends: King of Wands

This week’s card is the King of Wands. In the Tattooed Tarot that I use most often (the one that feels like an extension of myself, the one I visualize when I think of a particular card) it shows a man with a Chinese symbol that the Little White Booklet claims to mean “growth” tattooed on the back of his head, as below:

In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck he’s depicted as a literal king on his throne, as below:

In terms of the Qabalah, the Wands suit is concerned with the world of Atziluth, which deals with fire, imagination, and the spiritual/mystical realm. The Knight, as he’s called in the Thoth deck (which corresponds to the King in RWS and other systems, while the card called the Knight in other decks is called the Prince in the Thoth deck–confused yet?) is “fire in fire,” meaning that he doesn’t have the balance that would come from influence by other elements.

Often, when the court cards come up, they describe people, and it’s interesting, because I actually have been dealing over the past couple of days with some King of Wands personalities. Crowley described this guy as the Lord of Lightning and Flame, so that says a lot about his personality. At his best, he’s generous, passionate, spontaneous, creative, and above all honest. But like everyone, he has a dark side–he can be vain, arrogant, jealous, and controlling. His convictions can harden into intolerance of others, and his passion can turn obsessive at times.